On Wednesday, January 10 will take place a penumbral eclipse of Luna that will be visible from Spain. The visibility zone extends from Africa to Oceania, passing through Europe, India and Asia.
That day, the Moon will be in full phase and close to the point of its closest orbit to Earth , the Perigee (which takes place on the 13th), about 50,000 kilometers closer than when it is at its farthest point, the Apogee .
Eclipse development
The eclipse will begin at 17.07 (Universal Time, TU), that is at 18.07 (peninsular time), with the first contact of the lunar disk with the earth's penumbra. In Madrid, the beginning of the eclipse occurs as the Moon rises full in the East, coinciding with the solar twilight . In the Canary Islands, however, the Moon will rise already eclipsed.
The Moon will be almost completely immersed in the penumbra (at 90%) at 19h08m (TU), that is at 20h08m Peninsular time, this will be the central and maximum point of the eclipse. At that time, the brightness of our satellite will have decreased significantly , especially in its southern area. In fact, the northern edge of the lunar disk will be out of the penumbra, while the southern edge will be touching the shadow zone. But we must bear in mind that this decrease in brightness is less than that produced in a total eclipse, when Selene enters the shadow zone, not just the twilight zone.
The eclipse will have a total duration of 4h2m. It will end at 21.09 (TU), when our satellite is completely outside the twilight zone created by Earth.
For those interested in the beautiful and complex eclipse cycles: this is eclipse number 16 of the 71 eclipses that make up the Saros 144 cycle.
Why are there so few eclipses?
If the orbit of the Moon around the Earth were not inclined with respect to the plane of the Earth's orbit there would be an eclipse of the Moon in each full moon. But this inclination is about 5 degrees. Due to this inclination between the orbits, and as the eclipses require the almost perfect alignment of the three stars (Sun, Earth and Moon), the eclipses occur very rarely throughout the year.
For an eclipse to occur, it is required that the Moon be in the same plane of the Earth and the Sun, a plane that, precisely for facilitating eclipses, is called 'Plane of the Ecliptic'. In practice, the number of eclipses that occur each year is between four and seven , including those of Sun and Moon. Many of the lunar eclipses are penumbral like this.
Lunar eclipses always occur when the Moon is in the opposite direction of the Sun (visible all night) in the full moon phase. However, solar eclipses occur when the Moon is in a position of the sky close to that of the Sun and, therefore, in the new moon phase.
The observation of lunar eclipses can be done with the naked eye and, contrary to the eclipses of the Sun, it presents absolutely no danger.
The eclipses of the year 2020
During this same year 2020, there will be another three penumbral eclipses of the moon: two of them (those of June 5 and July 5) will be visible from Spain, while the third (November 30) will not be.
Also in this year there will be two eclipses of the Sun, but none visible from our country . The first, on June 21, will be visible as voiding from Impfondo (Republic of the Congo) through South Sudan, Ethiopia, the Arabian Peninsula, Pakistan, Tibet and Taiwan. The second, on December 14, can be seen as a total from the Pacific Ocean, Chile, Argentina and from the Atlantic Ocean to the coast of Namibia.
Rafael Bachiller is an astronomer and director of the National Astronomical Observatory (IGN)
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